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Educators get some deserved appreciation

Editorial

Posted: Sunday, October 12, 2008

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In the numbers-driven environment of public education today, where test scores and assorted other metrics are used to define the worth of an individual school or an entire school system, it's all too easy to forget that educating children is a decidedly human enterprise. It's easy to forget that, in the public schools, a community's children are in the hands of classroom teachers, administrators and support personnel who quite simply have to have extraordinary levels of dedication and talent to do the work they do.

Undoubtedly, that's doubly true in a system like the Clarke County School District, where grinding poverty, lack of a stable home life and assorted other ills affect a significant number of the young people who walk into the district's schools each day. Yet those dedicated professionals continue to show up, to fight the good fight, to make a sustained effort to give this community's young people the tools they need to make good lives for themselves.

While all of the people who staff Clarke County's schools and the school district's central office deserve a large measure of gratitude from this community, it is particularly fitting that those professionals who consistently go above and beyond the already considerable demands of their calling receive some special recognition.

Happily, that is one of the things the Foundation for Excellence in Clarke County Schools does with its annual awards banquet. This year's slate of honorees, who will be honored Monday evening at the Classic Center in downtown Athens, are:

The Banner-Herald extends its congratulations to this year's award recipients, and its appreciation to all involved in the all-too-often thankless, but supremely important, work of educating this community's young people.

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Athens Press Club's winkless debates coming up: Have you got debate fever, but cannot stand being winked at one more time? Fear not. Join the Athens Press Club for two evenings of political debate/theater at the Melting Point in downtown Athens. Candidates for Clarke County Board of Education, Clarke County sheriff and U.S. House 10th District debate 7-9 p.m. Monday, Oct. 20; District 46, 47 state Senate candidates and Athens-Clarke County Commission candidates debate 7-9 p.m. Monday, Oct. 27. The debates will be hosted by Tim Bryant of WGAU 1340 AM and broadcast live on the station as well as Webcast on onlineathens.com and flagpole.com both evenings.

The club extended an invite to Democrat Bobby Saxon, who'll get to debate against Broun's empty chair. Or, perhaps we can track down a cow patty with a piece of marshmallow stuck in the middle of it.

If you have a question you would like posed to any of the candidates, drop us a line and let us know what you would like asked. Hope to see you there.